When mounting radio frequency power transistors onto printed circuit boards, ground straps are typically required to be soldered between the flange or heat sink section of the power transistor which are typically designed to be grounded and the chassis of the radio in order to provide adequate grounding of the transistor device. Usually two such ground straps are required per power transistor, with each transistor requiring two hand soldering operations to be performed in order to solder the grounding strap between the transistor flange and the radio chassis.
Another problem encountered with prior art power transistor mounting techniques is that it is difficult to solder reflow the transistor leads on the same side of the printed circuit board as the matching elements which are coupled to the transistor. Without proper lead mounting, parasitic lead inductances are increased, causing for higher Q matches which result in the decrease of the transistor's bandwidth.
A need thus exists for a transistor mounting device which can alleviate the above mentioned problems as well as provide for improved heat-sinking of the power transistor.